Change In The Air As Drones Aid Smart Farming, Self-Employment In Rajasthan

Amarpal Singh Verma

Sriganganagar (Rajasthan): Drone technology has been making inroads into the lives of people in Rajasthan, be it for land mapping under the government scheme SVAMITVA or other purposes. Around a year and a half ago drones were employed in agricultural fields of Sriganganagar district in a first in the state.

Now, drones have made their way to Hanumangarh district also, to spray pesticides and fertilisers on crops. Two farmers have drones and three others are provided drones on rent for Rs 250 per bigha (.2 hectare). A drone for agricultural purposes costs at least Rs 10 lakh, so most farmers can’t afford it.

Gurugram-based IoTechWorld Avigation Private Limited was the first to utilise drones for agriculture in this area. According to the company’s distributor Krishna Bhambhu, fertilisers and pesticides have been sprayed in fields of about 150 farmers using drones in the last year and a half.

Ashish Beniwal, an engineering graduate from Naiwala village in Hanumangarh district, obtained drone training and pilot licence from Gurugram.

“It has been a year and a half since I purchased a 10-litre capacity drone for Rs 9.50 lakh. I first used it on my paddy, cotton, guar (cluster bean) and sugarcane crops. There was a 40 to 50% reduction in use of fertilisers and pesticides. It saved a lot of water also,” Ashish told 101Reporters.

He spent about Rs 2 lakh on pesticides and fertilisers for various crops on 30 bighas of land last year, whereas it came to only Rs 25,000 this year. Importantly, production was not affected in any way.

Ashish has been motivating other farmers to make use of his drone service.

“I have sprayed pesticides and fertilisers on about 5,000 bighas in various parts of Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar districts, and in the fields of 1,000 farmers in Sirsa and Adampur in neighbouring Haryana,” he beamed.

This way, Ashish earns Rs 200 to 250 per bigha. “I am going to get a licence for a medium category drone soon,” he added.

Kuldeep Jalap from Rawla in Sriganganagar district used drone service to spray pesticide on his cotton crop, on 10 bighas this year.

“Only half the amount of pesticide was needed compared to last year. The spraying was done very well. It was particularly effective on weeds in the moong [green gram] crop,” Jalap said. He cultivates moong on 10 bighas.

Naiwala farmer Sarwan Ram Beniwal is also happy with the drone service. Last year, as an experiment, he sprayed pesticide on paddy crops in four bighas. On finding it beneficial, he used the drone to spray pesticides twice on the paddy crop in his total 80 bighas this year.

“It took less time and less water. On foot, we could spray pesticides from drums on barely 10 bighas in a whole day, whereas the drone could do this work on 20 bighas in just a matter of hours. We will always use drones from now on,” Sarwan said.

An Upward Trend In Training

The state’s first drone pilot training centre was established in June at Sri Karan Narendra Agricultural University in Jobner, Jaipur, in collaboration with Wissmo Agventure Private Limited, Gurugram. The training programme offered here is certified by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Wissmo Agventure’s director Ved Pal Rose said that 20 youth have been trained since June in the first batch. The next batch of 20 is ready for training.

“A large number of youth showed interest, but initially, due to the requirement of a passport, fewer applications were received. Now the government has taken away that requirement. So, applications from more youth will come,” he said.

Dhruvaraj Godara, a certified drone technology expert from Jet Aerospace Aviation Centre in Palakkad, Kerala, and a progressive farmer from Hanumangarh district, is running a campaign to make farmers in the district aware of the drone technology.

“Drones will change the fate of farming in the coming days. So, there is a need to know about it today itself. Just as tractors arrived in the 1960s and then reached every home, drones are also going to spread rapidly. The best thing is that the government is promoting drones in farming,” he said.

According to Godara, 90 youth in the area talked to him and evinced interest in drone training. “There is a lot of enthusiasm among the youth of the district. I am also interested in enhancing my knowledge by training at various spots in the country. Drones will become a big medium of employment for the youth,” he predicted.

Government Initiatives

The state government has been making efforts to improve agricultural activities by promoting the use of drones. Explaining these measures, BR Bakolia, Assistant Director, Agriculture Department, Hanumangarh, said that nano urea was sprayed using drones in selected fields across the state in January.

“As per the Chief Minister’s 2023-24 Budget announcement, the agriculture department will spray nano urea through drones on wheat, barley, mustard and cumin crops this fiscal. For management purposes, 10,000 hectares of land will be divided into clusters of 10 hectares each. The objective is to introduce farmers to drone technology and to demonstrate the benefits and effects of nano urea on their fields,” Bakolia elaborated.

The target of spraying has been set at 591 hectares in Hanumangarh district and 624 hectares in Sriganganagar district. The first drone spraying of nano urea will be at 35 to 40 days of sowing and the second spraying at 55 to 60 days of sowing. These sprayings will happen on the same crop in the selected cluster according to the crop cycle.

“Through traditional spraying, plants are able to absorb only 30% of urea. The rest 70% goes waste, thus increasing environmental, groundwater and soil pollution, besides affecting human health. Plants absorb up to 80% of nano urea when sprayed by a drone. Nano urea is more effective and environment friendly than granular urea,” Bakolia explained.

The state government has decided to provide drones on subsidy under Rajasthan Agricultural Technology Mission to farmers and agriculture graduates. Under the scheme, 1,000 drones will be made available to cooperative societies, custom hiring centres and farmers producers’ organisations at subsidised rates. Another 1,000 drones will be provided on subsidised rates to the unemployed young agriculture graduates in the current fiscal.

According to Bakolia, 40% of the amount spent on drone purchase or a maximum of Rs 4 lakh (whichever is less) will be given as subsidy. The agriculture department wants farmers to use drones because the spraying can be done in less time and with less amount of pesticides and fertilisers. Drones can survey crop damage caused by adverse weather as well.

Dr Anup Kumar, Senior Scientist, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sangaria, said that drones can spray pesticides on up to 30 acres of land (48.39 bighas) in a day. “It requires less water and less pesticides. Time is also saved.”

Multiple Opportunities

During floods in Ghaggar river in Hanumangarh district in July, drone cameras monitored the embankments of the river. In June last year, locusts devouring crops in the villages of Nokha in Bikaner and Nohar in Hanumangarh were eliminated only by spraying pesticides using drones.

Two years ago, the city council in Hanumangarh prepared the zonal plan of the city with drones. In Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh, police are using drones from time to time to monitor protests, demonstrations, festivals and public meetings.

On behalf of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jodhpur, a successful experiment was conducted to send medicines by a drone to patients in Arunava, 50 km from the Tribal Health and Research Centre at Taleti on Abu Road. While returning, the drone carried sputum samples of suspected TB patients. AIIMS Jodhpur has plans to use drones for delivering medicines in tribal villages, if needed in future.

The increased use of drones in professional photography has provided employment to people in small towns and villages. Hundreds of people doing video and photo editing have purchased drones for their work, and also to rent out to photographers for pre-wedding, wedding, birthday party and religious functions.

Pointing to the demand, Pilibanga-based photographer Mela Rattan said nowadays everyone demands photo and videography through drones. ”We can get drones on rent for Rs 3,500 to 4,000 per day.”

Chahat Balana of Hanumangarh said he used to do video editing beforehand. “Three years ago, I started renting out drones. Now, I earn up to Rs 4,000 per day in a season.”

The wedding season in Rajasthan is generally from mid-January to April, May-June, and October-November.

Gurmel Singh of Hanumangarh has been renting out drones for the last three years, besides doing video editing. Sriganganagar-based photographer Sanjay Midha bought a drone six months ago. He uses it for his photography and also rents out.

“It can bring an additional income of Rs 3,000 to 4,000 daily,” he said.

(Amarpal Singh Verma is a Rajasthan-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)